Hey folks,
My friends and I have playtested a few games of A&A:R with Guadalcanal combat and movement rules, and we had a very satisfying experience in doing so. There are a few obvious obstacles to converting the system over, most of which I hope you will find the answers to in the rules below…
The biggest change is to the number of IPCs collected; unit costs are the same as in A&A:G, but you only collect 50% of your regular IPC income, rounded down [SBRs are also reduced to 50% effectiveness, but losses are rounded up instead].
Movement is conducted in player order: 1.USSR, 2.Germany, 3.UK, 4.Japan, 5.US.
The first player token moves one place each round, so Round 2 player order would be 1.Germany, 2.UK, 3.Japan, 4.US, 5.USSR. In Round 3, the UK would be have the first player token, and so forth.
Movement is conducted in the following order (First Player moves all units of the stated type first):
**(1) Transports [Load and Move]
(2) Battleships
(3) Aircraft Carriers
(4) Cruisers
(5) Destroyers [Load and Move]
(6) Submarines
(7) Infantry
(8) Artillery
(9) Armor
(10) Anti-Aircraft Guns and Supply Tokens
(11) Bombers
(12) Fighters
All units have Move: 1 except for Fighters which have Range: 2, and Bombers which have Range: 3.
If a mechanized unit [all Air Units, all Sea Units, and Armor] begins its movement in a territory or a sea zone with a Supply Token in it, that unit can use that Supply Token to get Move: +1 or Range: +1 [maximum use = 1 Supply Token per 1 mechanized unit per turn]. Game starts with 1 Supply on Eastern US, Western US, UK, Russia, and 2 Supply on Germany and Japan.
Control of territories is determined by who has the majority of land units there—in the case of a tie, the previous owner retains control. As long as a player has any land units in a territory, their industrial complex there can continue to produce units for them.
[Some of the units from A&A:R don’t exist in the Guadalcanal version. Here are their converted forms…]
Industrial Complex
Air: 0
Sea: 0
Air: 0
Cost: 5
Special Ability: Can be built on any territority; next turn, it can produce a # of new units = that territory’s value.
Armor [takes die spot #5 in the Attack Land Units row of the battle box]
Air: 0
Sea: 0
Land: 2
Cost: 2
Special Abilities: Breakthrough
Breakthrough: land units that share a territory with enemy land units cannot move [they are considered ‘locked in combat’]; land units with Breakthrough can move normally, even when they start their turn in a territory that contains enemy land units.
[Resilience had to change somewhat to fit the new setting…]
Resilience: units with Resilience are considered damaged on a roll of 2, instead of destroyed. Damaged units cannot move, and lose 1 die to each of their Land/Sea/Air rolls. Damaged units can be repaired by spending 1 Supply Token [that Supply Token must share a territory or sea zone with the damaged unit; however, sea units can be repaired by Supply Tokens on a territory adjacent the sea zone they occupy].
[The following ability is an optional buff for subs, which makes them much more effective. Consider it the ‘Schnorkel’ weapons development… you can also apply it to Japanese fighters as a ‘Superior Fighters’ development…]
Evasion: units with evasion can only be hit on a roll of ‘1’.
I think that about covers all the big changes that had to be made. If you get the chance, try it out and let me know how it goes! I hope that you have as much fun as we did with the rules; it seriously reduced player ‘downtime’ and made the game feel much more like an integrated global conflict…
Enjoy!